What rhymes with rain?

     For the Pacific Northwest rain is what winter is all about.  For the Christian we have many other "rain" related associations.  For instance, God rains down his blessings upon us "so much so that we cannot contain them."  Of course a lot of Christians don't live like they believe this most of the time.  That includes me.  I don't like that part about me.  There is nowhere in the world I'd rather live with the blessings that freedom is rained down upon me.  I'm free to write this blog (even offend some) and you are free to respond to what I write.  Neither your freedom nor mine infringes upon the other.  We may take offense or stand in agreement; but we are still free to write or speak our minds.  I'm free to tell people about Jesus and have been blessed with the ability to read the Bible so I know what God's truth is all about.  Mind you, I discover new revelations in the Bible every day as I read it every day.  There is another freedom.  I can learn to read, write and can also possess a Bible in my language to read every day.  Another form of rain from the Lord as he wants us to know him and love him.  That gives us the freedom to accept his love and (you guessed it) rain that love on those around us.  When we think of what rhymes with grain, think gain!
     Some of you reading may be having rain in the form of snow, sleet or hail.  In the midst of commute traffic this may not seem like much of a blessing.  Yet, symbolically, snow reminds us that Jesus' blood (red) washes us whiter than snow.  So often we see those around us in shades of gray to black.  We see the worst and despite the freedom to do so, we are wrong.  We don't know the heart and struggles of those around us.  Because of this we jump to the conclusion (another freedom) that they somehow are worse off than we are.  Maybe they see your shades of gray?  Because we are believers we are told that there will be trials and that we will be persecuted.  Because we are living for Jesus the trials and persecution are his and yet somehow we feel that we need to carry them personally in spite of his raining down upon us the blessings of heaven so much so that we cannot contain them.  When thinking of the rhymes of rain with other words we need to try "again" to let God be our reason for living.  Wait!  There's another freedom!  Maybe "freedom" should rhyme with rain.
     We know that the rain, snow, sleet, hail all are there to refresh the earth.  The water sinks into our aquifers after filtration by layers of dirt, rock and sand making it ready for us to consume, feed our animals and crops, and to return to the form of rain. Cycles of this have been ongoing since the Creation.  Sometimes we don't have rain when we want it and sometimes we have to much rain when we don't want the rain.  So we complain.  We wonder why we left Egypt in the first place.  The cycle of Heaven isn't the cycle of earth.  We try to make the two the same but that isn't how it works.  In order for us to have the blessings of heaven rain down upon us we need to see our world from God's eyes.  Where rain helps one area, that same rain wreaks havoc on other areas.  The rain of the Pacific Northwest would create almost endless flash floods in the more desert areas of the country.  The dry that makes life good in Tucson, Arizona would decimate our area and destroy any and all crops.  One man's rain is another man's disaster.  Yet we look upon our neighbor and think, "Why can't I be blessed like so and so?"  They may well ask the same question about us.  The truth is we are all blessed according to our NEEDS and not our WANTS.  I want sunshine and warmth.  I need rain and renewal.  In Jesus I get both.  So the rhyme is we shouldn't "complain" about the "rain."